


The Prince Who Thought It Was A Monster

by lextenou



Category: Prins Lindorm | King Lindworm (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Challenge Response, F/F, Fairy Tale Retellings, Genderqueer Character, Queer Themes, Revisionist Fairy Tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 14:55:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12301518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lextenou/pseuds/lextenou
Summary: A mother should know, when offered the fulfillment of her dream to bear her child - the boon may come at too steep a price. Not a price paid by those who incur it, nay, a price borne by those whom were suffered to exist. The Prince and Heir bears this curse, brought upon its head by its mother; woe has lain upon the kingdom hence.





	The Prince Who Thought It Was A Monster

**Author's Note:**

> Fulfillment of a Tumblr request. Inspired by the Norwegian fairy tale Prins Lindorm.

It was an odd existence, being itself.

People tended to gender it as male. It truly didn't know - scales don't truly represent as sexual organs of the sort to really allow it to be gendered. Not that it truly cared. It was itself. Anything further didn't really matter outside of its wife.

It had grown in darkness and exile.

Much of the world was set against it. The taste of blood within its teeth was something highly familiar before it had reached five summers. Something about its fangs and scales allowed for others to either recoil, revulse, or be otherwise incapacitated just long enough to allow it to remove their threat.

The first offering to wife was a slight girl. It knew it would not end well. The first would never go well. The first time it tried to catch a fish ended with a charred body, after all. It was not easy to figure out how to actually consume sustenance until it had found the enchanted spring. Brightly shining in the night, there was a sheer glow over the water that barely glimmered. It did not give much to the idea that there might be something further, until it submerged into the light glow of the water and felt its hunger dissipate into nothingness.

The first offering was not a positive experience.

She came up, innocent and trembling.

She did not leave.

It did not try to kill her.

It reached out, a single claw brushing against the curve of a draped cloth.

The fire surprised it as much as the engulfed maiden. It spread and wrapped around her far too quickly for any reaction. All that existed was the flames.

The second resulted in the same, even though it tried to brush against her bared shoulder instead.

The third showed up naked.

The ashes were easier to blow away.

Its brother asked for succor. It knew not how to provide it. It was the firstborn. It required a bride prior to allowing its brother to have his own. It knew not how nor why, but it knew it must be so, for it was how the world must work. It must be wed prior to its brother lest great ills fall upon their kingdom.

It would probably help should it have some inkling or care of its own gender.

The fourth offering remained a maiden, presented quietly and softly. She watched it silently and observant, the only of the three to present without obvious fear.

"Maiden wife, remove your shift. Your husband requests it." It spoke softly and calmly, its voice resounding roughly in the stone chamber.

"Husband, I would have you shed first."

It cocked its head. Its shining emeralds that stood in for eyes glistening in the dim light. It thought for a moment before nodding its head. "None other has asked this of me, wife. I shall do this for you."

It shed its skin, immediately feeling a slight breeze wafting over some scales.

Its wife shed her shift, revealing another bright clean shift beneath. "Maiden wife, remove your shift. Your husband requests it."

"Husband, I would have you shed first."

It cocked its head. The glistening emerald of its eyes had become brighter and shinier than before, just slightly enough that it could see that its bride had darker hair that it had thought originally.

"I shall do this for you, wife."

It shed its skin, a few scales sticking. Its wife shed her shift, revealing the pristine shift below.

So it continued for the full eleven shifts. The last shed had been more painful, and its wife had sighed in relief each time one of the shifts had been removed.

"Maiden wife." It inhaled harshly, its breath rattling roughly. "Remove your shift. Your husband requests it." It did not know why it phrased its request in such a way, only that it must be so. The request must so be spoken from it, and it must be answered as so from its wife.

"Husband." Her breath hitched in her throat as she looked it up and down, capturing the sight of it as represented with its scales. "I..." She swallowed, faltering before the pain that flashed across its face. "I would have you shed first."

Its spine straightened proudly, standing tall before its wife. "I shall do this for you, wife."

The shedding this time was considerably more painful than before. It was as though it was shedding its very essence. Each scale ripped from its body, slowly and with the agony of untold hurt it had visited upon others. It had not meant to do the things it had done. Its very touch was poison. It wished deeply that it would be able to actually touch its wife.

The slow peel of scales from its underskin wrenched agony upon its nerves, drawing a low growl from its chest. It almost wished it could beg its bride to not do this thing she requested of it.

The scales left behind deeply pressed in patterns on its skin. Its skin breathed for the first time that it could remember. The breeze almost felt good against the slowly, sluggishly bleeding skin that was revealed.

Nipples tightened against the breeze for the first time. It did not recognize the feeling. The sheer oddity of it made it shift, making its blood flow more freely through the cracked bits that used to be under its carapace. Its wife wrapped her arms around it, a veritable coat rendered in birch rods. Each rod dug into its flesh cruelly, and it groaned with the agony.

One by one, the rods snapped against its skin, the barest milk of its sap lapping against it. Its wife held it close and submerged them into a waiting tub, filled to the brim with lye. Its wife's arms must burn the from the sensation, but still she washed its skin, steady deliberate swipes of sponge against its sensitized flesh. Then did its wife lift it from the lye and submerge it within another waiting tub, filled to the brim with milk. The soothing wash of the warm milk against its flesh felt as an embrace that it had never known, the surest lover's touch that soothed the burn left from the harsh scrubbing of lye. Once each swipe of lye had been cleansed by the sweet cooling of the milk did its wife pull it from the bath, embracing its form within her arms.

The shifts that had been discarded at its behest lay abandoned on the floor, each clean and pristine against the sins of the world. With cautious, sure hands did its wife bring them up, shake loose the folds of each and embrace it within the soft, gentle cotton. Twelve layers did she wrap it in, and only then did it feel the harsh rawness of the shedding, lye, and milk seep from it, leaving behind naught but the rich sensation of a satisfied exhaustion.

Its wife wrapped it in her arms and together they collapsed upon the marriage bed.

Many hours later did the knock come. Timid and hesistant, a voice called into the chamber.

"Your Royal Highness? Do you yet live?"

The bride's eyes fluttered open. Sun streamed through the window casement, bathing the figure before her in rich golden tones.

"Aye. We live." The words, strongly spoken, washed over the bride as she watched verdant green eyes flutter open. The dulcet tones that embraced her being had been spoken by her husband, the sweet form within her arms, named the Crown Prince of the lands by law and decree.

"Husband mine, your form..."

Words failed the bride as the soft cotton shifts rumpled beneath her touch. Never did she dare dream of such a happening.

"I appear to be not as I was, wife." Shining green cast downward, surveying the form revealed. "It appears I am not as I thought."

The bride smiled. "Indeed."

The cursed Prince's head cocked to one side, curiosity held within the verdant gaze. "Do I displease, wife?"

Soft hands wended across strongly muscled shoulders. "In faith, husband, you are more than could have been dreamed for."

The Prince smiled. "I am glad. I shall do all within my power to keep you as happy as you are within this moment."

The bride blushed. "Husband, you need not do this. Merely stay by my side knowing of my affection for you and all shall be well."

The Prince let loose with a soft laugh, wrapping sure arms around the bride within the bed. "Wife...you have freed me from a curse unlike any known within the lands. In faith, I did not know mine own self nor gender apart from the need to wife. That you should embrace me, uncaring of my form, is far beyond any fevered dream I might have dared." A hand was brought up to full lips, a simple kiss pressed against the palm. "As long as you shall have me, wife, I pledge that I and mine are for you."

She smiled. "Your bravery and fidelity speaks much of you, husband. Do you have a wish to impart such news upon the kingdom?"

A soft smile came, tinged with a hint of bestial wickedness. "A wedding 'tis not a wedding 'til it has been consummated."

Many hours later, the kingdom was pleased to welcome its newest princess and her husband, the strongly handsome female Prince.

 


End file.
